| « Japanopedia better explained (hopefully) | Screen capture tutorials for JapanSoc » |
Japanopedia - Questions from Readers
On February 21, 2008 in Japanopedia
 |
Some background in case you are new:Japanopedia is a project on wikia.com (from the creators of wikipedia). Here are some previous posts about it, more explanation to come. |
Deas Said, Is this similar to Japan Reference? Note: I have never used the site. Just ran across it when searching. But it seems kind of similar. Just curious.
The Chemist Said, Hi Deas! I love Jref. I’ve been roaming around on its pages for a long time. I don’t want this project to replace or compete with it. Instead I hope this project will support and enhance other projects like jref.The project is supposed to be more of a tool for collaboration than a resource in itself. The JapanSoc project page we started on it is a perfect example. Multiple people can work on the same list and check off the blogs they have soc’ed. Few platforms besides wiki allow this type of collaboration. Other projects, like Jref, could use this wiki to organise group work for their own sites.
I need to explain this better in future posts. I think I have just confused people so far.
If you have any other questions about the project (or this reply) please let me know because it could help me better explain it in the future to others.
Also, to relate it to your RockingInHakata:
Let’s say you wanted to make a bunch of LOL cats in Japanese ( or translate a list of jokes into Japanese) and you wanted help from others. You could use this wiki to start a project page for it and invite others to help you out. So multiple people could edit and translate on the same page (and wikis archive all changes so you cannot lose info to vandalism).
I would love to help you with this kind of page if you are interested. Just let me know!
What do you think? Do you understand the project a little better from this q and a? Feel free to tell me if I sound like a rambling idiot 
I hope Deas saw my reply.
“The project is supposed to be more of a tool for collaboration than a resource in itself.”
So it’s basically a directory service and assistance request forum? I see.
So far as the hypothetical idea goes, I prefer doing my weird little side projects by myself. If people add or make suggestions, they do so on my site in the comments. But I get the idea, I think.
I guess I’m just not really sold on why it’s necessary, yet. Seems like old fashioned email, comments, and cross-posting get a lot of collaboration under way pretty naturally. You’d have to have a really huge consistent readership to make it a viable well of talent (and free time) from which to draw prospective project partners. That alliteration was accidental, by the way. I guess the challenge is that you’re seeking to figuratively and literally attempting to get everyone on the same page in order to help better…get everyone on the same page. See what I mean?
Let’s say I wanted to use Japanopedia so people could list their favorite Japan-related podcasts, how do I set up a Japan Podcasts page? On the homepage you’ve got two places to start a new page, one is to add your site to the directory, and the other is for new projects. The box for new projects appears to need a url… what’s up with that? Can’t I just start a new page by typing in a page name, i.e. “Japan Podcasts”?
@Deas,
“I guess I’m just not really sold on why it’s necessary, yet.”
That is understandable. I have been doing a lot of talking about the project but probably I need to focus on creating pages on the wiki that are useful to people so they can see why the project matters.
I don’t really know the best way to make this project a success. But I hope the problem isn’t getting many people on the same page as much as it is getting a core group of people around the project that we are working on at a specific time. And then using that core group to take on a specific challenge.
@ Nick,
I like your idea about starting something for Japan related podcast (I know it was just hypothetical though). The problem with that directory for creating projects right now is that it creates a project information page but does not create a category. So I need to work on the wiki and make it work for starting projects that are actual categories (like with the JapanSoc project). Thanks for pointing that out, I will work on it.
Also, there are links on the project pages because some projects might already have websites and will use Japanopedia as a place to do collaborative work they cannot do on their main site. If there isn’t a site then that URL can be removed.
Add A Comment